The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of the Antarctic Peninsula,[1] with a total area of 3,687 square kilometres (1,424 sq mi). By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories[citation needed] and they are free for use by any signatory for non-military purposes.

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The islands were discovered by the British mariner William Smith in 1819. Although it has been postulated that Dutch mariner Dirck Gerritsz in 1599 or Spanish Admiral Gabriel de Castilla in 1603 might have sighted the South Shetlands, or North or South American sealers might have visited the archipelago before Smith, there is insufficient historical evidence to sustain such assertions. Smith’s discovery, by contrast, was well documented and had wider historical implications beyond its geographic significance.[2]

Chilean scientists have claimed that Amerinds visited the islands, due to stone artifacts recovered from bottom-sampling operations in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, and Discovery Bay, Greenwich Island;[3] however, the artifacts — two arrowheads — were later found to have been planted.[4][5] In 1818 Juan Pedro de Aguirre obtained permission from the Buenos Aires authorities to establish a base for sealing on "some of the uninhabited islands near the South Pole".[6]

Captain William Smith in the British merchant brig Williams, while sailing to Valparaíso, Chile in 1819 deviated from his route south of Cape Horn, and on 19 February sighted Williams Point, the northeast extremity of Livingston Island. Thus Livingston Island became the first land ever discovered south of the 60th southern latitude. Smith revisited the South Shetlands, landed on King George Island on 16 October 1819, and claimed possession for Britain.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Navy ship San Telmo sank in September 1819 whilst trying to go through the Drake Passage. Parts of her presumed wreckage were found months later by sealers on the north coast of Livingston Island.

From December 1819 to January 1820, the islands were surveyed and mapped by Lieutenant Edward Bransfield on board the Williams, which had been chartered by the Royal Navy.

On 15 November 1819 the United States agent in Valparaíso, Jeremy Robinson, informed the US Secretary of StateJohn Quincy Adams of Smith's discovery and Bransfield's forthcoming mission, and suggested dispatching a US Navy ship to explore the islands where "new sources of wealth, power and happiness would be disclosed and science itself be benefited thereby."

The discovery of the islands attracted British and American sealers. The first sealing ship to operate in the area was the brig Espirito Santo, chartered by British merchants in Buenos Aires. The ship arrived at Rugged Island off Livingston Island, where its British crew landed on Christmas Day 1819, and claimed the islands for King George III. A narrative of the events was published by the brig's master, Joseph Herring, in the July 1820 edition of the Imperial Magazine. The Espirito Santo was followed from the Falkland Islands by the American brig Hersilia, commanded by Captain James Sheffield (with second mate Nathaniel Palmer), the first US sealer in the South Shetlands.

The first wintering over in Antarctica took place on the South Shetlands, when at the end of the 1820–21 summer season eleven British men from the ship Lord Melville failed to leave King George Island, and survived the winter to be rescued at the beginning of the next season.

Having circumnavigated the Antarctic continent, the Russian Antarctic expedition of Fabian von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev arrived at the South Shetlands in January 1821. The Russians surveyed the islands and named them, landing on both King George Island and Elephant Island. While sailing between Deception and Livingston islands, Bellingshausen was visited by Nathaniel Palmer, master of the American brig Hero, who informed him of the activities of dozens of American and British sealing ships in the area.

The name "New South Britain" was used briefly, but was soon changed to South Shetland Islands (in reference to the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland). The name South Shetland Islands is now established in international usage. Both island groups lie at similar distances from the South Pole and North Pole respectively, but the South Shetlands are much colder (see below).

Seal hunting and whaling was conducted on the islands during the 19th and early 20th century. Beginning in 1908, these islands were governed as part of the Falkland Islands Dependency, but they have only been occupied by humans since the establishment of a scientific research station in 1944. The archipelago, together with the nearby Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia Island, is an increasingly popular tourist destination during the southern summer.

The South Shetlands consist of 11 major islands and several minor ones, totalling 3,687 square kilometres (1,424 sq mi) of land area. Between 80 and 90 percent of the land area is permanently glaciated. The highest point on the island chain is Mount Irving on Clarence Island at 2,300 metres (7,546 ft) above sea level.

The islands are the same distance from the equator as the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, but their proximity to Antarctica means that they have a much colder climate. The sea around the islands is closed by ice from early April to early December and the monthly average temperature is below 0 °C (32 °F) for eight months of the year (April to November).

The islands have experienced measurable glacier retreat during recent years, but despite this, they remain more than 80% snow and ice covered throughout the summer.

The climate is cloudy and humid all year round and very strong westerly winds blow at all seasons. Some of the sunniest weather is associated with outbreaks of very cold weather from the south in late winter and spring. Mean summer temperatures are only about 1.5 °C (34.7 °F) and those in winter are about −5 °C (23 °F). The effect of the ocean tends to keep summer temperatures low and winter temperatures from decreasing as low as they do inland to the south.[7]

1.
Fair Isle
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Fair Isle is an island in northern Scotland, belonging to the Shetland island group, lying around halfway between mainland Shetland and the Orkney islands. It is known for its observatory and a traditional style of knitting. Fair Isle is the most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom, Fair Isle is 4.8 km long and 2.4 km wide. It has an area of 3 sq mi, making it the tenth largest of the Shetland Islands and it gives its name to one of the British Sea Areas. The majority of the live in the crofts on the southern half of the island. The western coast consists of cliffs of up to 200 m in height, with Ward Hill at 217 m being the elevation of the island. There are two known Iron Age sites – a promontory fort at Landberg and the foundations of a house underlying an early Christian settlement at Kirkigeo, most of the place-names date from after the 9th-century Norse settlement of the Northern Isles. By that time the lands had clearly been in use for centuries. On 20 August 1588 the flagship of the Spanish Armada, El Gran Grifón, was shipwrecked in the cove of Stroms Heelor, the wreck was discovered in 1970. The large Canadian sailing ship Black Watch was wrecked on Fair Isle in 1877, Fair Isle was bought by the National Trust for Scotland in 1954 from George Waterston, the founder of the bird observatory. The population has been decreasing steadily from about 400 in 1900, there are currently around 55 permanent residents on the island, the majority of whom are crofters who work the land. The island has 14 scheduled monuments, ranging from the earliest signs of activity to the remains of a Second World War radar station. The two automated lighthouses are protected as listed buildings, the island houses a series of high-technology relay stations carrying vital TV, radio, telephone and military communication links between Shetland, Orkney and the Scottish mainland. In this respect it continues its role as a signal-station, linking the mainland. In 1976, when television relay equipment was updated to permit colour broadcasts to Shetland, many television signals are relayed from Orkney to Shetland via Orkneys Keelylang Hill transmitter station. Over the centuries the island has changed many times. Rent was usually paid to landlords in butter, cloth. Fishing has always been an important industry for the island, in 1702, the Dutch, who were interested in Shetlands herring fisheries, fought a naval battle against French warships just off the island

2.
Antarctica
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It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth-largest continent, for comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness, Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is a desert, with precipitation of only 200 mm along the coast. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C, though the average for the quarter is −63 °C. Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, vegetation, where it occurs, is tundra. The continent, however, remained neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of easily accessible resources. In 1895, the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians, Antarctica is a de facto condominium, governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and thirty-eight have signed it since then, the treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the continents ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations, the name Antarctica is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική, feminine of ἀνταρκτικός, meaning opposite to the Arctic, opposite to the north. Aristotle wrote in his book Meteorology about an Antarctic region in c.350 B. C, marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century A. D. Before acquiring its present geographical connotations, the term was used for locations that could be defined as opposite to the north. For example, the short-lived French colony established in Brazil in the 16th century was called France Antarctique, the first formal use of the name Antarctica as a continental name in the 1890s is attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. Antarctica has no population and there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century. Explorer Matthew Flinders, in particular, has credited with popularising the transfer of the name Terra Australis to Australia. Cook came within about 120 km of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals, according to various organisations, ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica or its ice shelf in 1820, von Bellingshausen, Edward Bransfield, and Nathaniel Palmer

3.
Whaling
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Whaling is the hunting of whales for their usable products like meat, oil and blubber. Its earliest forms date to at least circa 3000 BC, various coastal communities have long histories of subsistence whaling and harvesting beached whales. By the late 1930s, more than 50,000 whales were killed annually In 1986, contemporary whaling is subject to intense debate. Pro-whaling countries, notably Japan, Norway, and Iceland, wish to lift the ban on certain whale stocks for hunting, anti-whaling countries and environmental groups oppose lifting the ban. Whaling began in times and was initially confined to coastal waters. Early whaling affected the development of disparate cultures – such as Norway. The Basques were the first to catch whales commercially, and dominated the trade for five centuries, spreading to the far corners of the North Atlantic and even reaching the South Atlantic. Although prehistoric hunting and gathering is considered to have had little ecological impact. Whale oil is used today and modern commercial whaling is primarily done for food. The primary species hunted are the common minke whale and Antarctic minke whale, recent scientific surveys estimate a population of 103,000 in the northeast Atlantic. International cooperation on whaling began in 1931 and culminated in the signing of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in 1946. Its aim is to, provide for the conservation of whale stocks. The International Whaling Commission was set up under the ICRW to decide hunting quotas, non-member countries are not bound by its regulations and conduct their own management programs. The IWC voted on July 23,1982, to establish a moratorium on commercial whaling beginning in the 1985–86 season. Since 1992, the IWCs Scientific Committee has requested that it be allowed to give proposals for some whale stocks. At the 2010 meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Morocco, Japan, Norway and Iceland have urged the organisation to lift the ban. A coalition of anti-whaling nations has offered a plan that would allow these countries to continue whaling. Their plan would also completely ban whaling in the Southern Ocean, opponents of the compromise plan want to see an end to all commercial whaling, but are willing to allow subsistence-level catches by indigenous peoples

4.
Half Moon Island
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Half Moon Island is a minor Antarctic island, lying 1.35 km north of Burgas Peninsula, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic Peninsula region. Its surface area is 171 hectares, the Argentine Cámara Base is located on the island. It is only accessible by sea and by helicopter, there is no airport of any kind, the naval base is operational occasionally during the summer, but is closed during the winter. Plants found on the island include several lichen and moss species as well as Antarctic Hairgrass, the island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding colony of about 100 pairs of south polar skuas. Other birds nesting on the island include chinstrap penguins, Antarctic terns, kelp gulls, Wilsons and black-bellied storm petrels, Cape petrels, brown skuas, snowy sheathbills, weddell and Antarctic fur seals regularly haul out on the beaches. Southern elephant seals have been recorded, whales are often seen patrolling the shores. The island is used as a stop during Antarctic cruises, with the peak of visitation during November–March, in September 2010, Google added Street View imagery of Half Moon Island to its Google Earth and Google Maps services. The expansion of Google Street View onto the island means all seven continents had imagery through the service, as the island has no roads, the images appear to have been taken with a camera on a tripod. The shadow of the photographer can clearly be seen if one were to move the view so as to look at the ground, also, the iconic Pegman from Google was replaced with a Penguin, due to the islands use as a breeding colony by them. The penguin has since changed back to Pegman though. Antarctica, Livingston Island and Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands,1,100000 scale topographic map, antarctica, Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands. ISBN 978-954-92032-6-4 Images from Half Moon Island Videos and photographs of birds of Half Moon Island on the Internet Bird Collection Google Street View hits Antarctic

5.
Tangra Mountains
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Tangra Mountains form the principal mountain range of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The range had been nameless until 2001, when it was named after the Bulgar god Tangra, the mountain is divided in three principal ridges, Friesland Ridge in the west, Levski Ridge in the centre, and Delchev Ridge in the east. Camp Academia in the foothills of Zograf Peak is the perfect gateway to central Tangra Mountains via Catalunyan Saddle to the south. Catalunyan Saddle was occupied by a bivouac of the Tangra 2004/05 Exploration team on 14–16 December 2004, Friesland Ridge is 15.5 km long from Botev Point in the southwest to Shipka Saddle to the northeast. The summit Mount Friesland rises to exactly 1700 m and it was accurately measured by GPS in December 2003 by the Omega Foundation expedition led by Damien Gildea, which made the second ascent of Mount Friesland. Other main peaks are St. Boris, Simeon, St. Cyril, Lyaskovets, Presian Ridge, St. Methodius, Academia, and Zograf. Levski Ridge is 8 km long between Shipka Saddle to the west and Devin Saddle to the east, and 8 km wide between Cherepish Ridge to the north and Christoff Cliff to the south. The summit Great Needle Peak rises to 1680 m, and was first ascended and GPS-surveyed by the Bulgarian mountaineers Doychin Boyanov, Nikolay Petkov, other main peaks are Levski, St. Ivan Rilski Col, Helmet, Serdica, Vihren, Ongal, and Plovdiv. Other first ascents, Ongal Peak and Komini Peak by L. Ivanov from Camp Academia on 21 December 2004, Delchev Ridge is 10 km long between Devin Saddle to the west and Renier Point to the east. The summit Delchev Peak rises to 940 m, other peaks are Ruse, Asen, Peter, Kuber, Elena, Spartacus, Yavorov. British mapping of the mountains in 1968, Spanish mapping in 1991, Omega Foundation mapping in 2004, Bulgarian mapping in 2005 and 2009 from topographic surveys in 1995/96, S. Soccol, D. Gildea and J. Bath. Antarctica, Livingston Island and Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands, sofia, Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria,2005. Antarctica, Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands, Antarctica, Livingston Island and Smith Island. 2003 – Omega Livingston Island GPS Expedition, Livingston Island, Climb Magazine, Issue 14, Kettering, UK, April 2006, pp. 89–91. General Geography and History of Livingston Island, in, Bulgarian Antarctic Research, A Synthesis. Sofia, St. Kliment Ohridski University Press,2015, mountaineering in Antarctica, complete guide, Travel guide. ISBN 978-2-51103-136-0 Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria Tangra 2004/05 Expedition Expedition Omega Livingston 2003, Antarctic Mountains, Climbing in Antarctica This article includes information from the Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria which is used with permission

6.
Chile
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Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres of Antarctica, the arid Atacama Desert in northern Chile contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes, the southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. Spain conquered and colonized Chile in the century, replacing Inca rule in northern and central Chile. After declaring its independence from Spain in 1818, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a relatively stable authoritarian republic, in the 1960s and 1970s the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. The regime, headed by Augusto Pinochet, ended in 1990 after it lost a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a coalition which ruled through four presidencies until 2010. Chile is today one of South Americas most stable and prosperous nations and it leads Latin American nations in rankings of human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. It also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, Chile is a founding member of the United Nations, the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. There are various theories about the origin of the word Chile, another theory points to the similarity of the valley of the Aconcagua with that of the Casma Valley in Peru, where there was a town and valley named Chili. Another origin attributed to chilli is the onomatopoeic cheele-cheele—the Mapuche imitation of the warble of a locally known as trile. The Spanish conquistadors heard about this name from the Incas, ultimately, Almagro is credited with the universalization of the name Chile, after naming the Mapocho valley as such. The older spelling Chili was in use in English until at least 1900 before switching over to Chile, stone tool evidence indicates humans sporadically frequented the Monte Verde valley area as long as 18,500 years ago. About 10,000 years ago, migrating Native Americans settled in fertile valleys, settlement sites from very early human habitation include Monte Verde, Cueva del Milodon and the Pali Aike Craters lava tube. They fought against the Sapa Inca Tupac Yupanqui and his army, the result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the Battle of the Maule was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the Maule river. The next Europeans to reach Chile were Diego de Almagro and his band of Spanish conquistadors, the Spanish encountered various cultures that supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarros lieutenants, who founded the city of Santiago on 12 February 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chiles central valley

7.
Argentine Antarctica
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Administratively, Argentine Antarctica is a department of the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica, and South Atlantic Islands. The provincial authorities reside in Ushuaia and the Governor annually designates his or her delegate for the Antarctica region, the civil power of any of the administrators extends no further than that nations own bases. The South Orkney Islands are part of Islas del Atlántico Sur Departament, the Argentine exploration of the continent started early in the 20th century. José María Sobral was the first Argentine to set foot on Antarctica in 1902, shortly afterwards, in 1904, the Orcadas permanent base was already fully operational. Years later other bases would be created, some permanent and others seasonal, the first Argentine expedition to reach the South Pole was the 1965 Operación 90. Argentine activities in Antarctica are coordinated by the Instituto Antártico Argentino, the estimated Argentine Antarctica area is 1,461,597 km2, of which 965,597 km2 is land. The ice in the shell has a thickness of 2 km on average. Temperatures range from 0 °C in summer and -60 °C in winter although in certain points may drop to approximately -82 °C, time zone UTC-3 is used as in the South American continent. Argentina has six permanent Antarctic Stations and seven Summer Stations with a total of 13, in 1815 Guillermo Brown, an Irish Marine Commodore in the service of the United Provinces of Río de la Plata, launched a campaign to harass the Spanish fleet in the Pacific Ocean. When rounding Cape Horn aboard the Hercules and Trinidad, strong winds pushed them to parallel 65 S, in the petition that was presented Aguirre, he has requested authorization for installation of an establishment for seal hunting in some of the existing islands off the South Pole. The fact that these sealers were directed to the islands with fixed course is regarded as proof that they were previously known. In 1848 Luis Piedrabuena traveled to Antarctica as a boy of William Smiley. This Argentine receive support in exchange for incorporating an Argentine Navy to dispatch and deliver scientific data, on their way through Buenos Aires lieutenant Jose Maria Sobral boarded the ship Antarctic on 21 December 1901. The expedition built a hut on Snow Hill Island in 1902, the Argentine Navy took possession of the hut in 1954 and named it Refugio Suecia. Currently it is an Argentine historical monument and historical site and monument as appointed by the Antarctic Treaty, the 1902 expedition built another hut in Hope Bay, it is also Argentine and an Antarctic monument under the control of Esperanza Station. In it an observatory, where he also worked a post office was installed. Civil Hugo Alberto Acuna accounted hoist for the first time in a way the flag of Argentina on the Argentine Antarctic sector. Such an observatory became the Orcadas Base the oldest existing today across the Antarctic territory permanent human settlement, thanks to Argentine collaboration with his expedition, Charcot named an insular group as Argentine Islands

8.
Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina
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Tierra del Fuego is an Argentine province. Under undisputed Argentine administration Ushuaia Department, also on Isla Grande bordering Chilean territory and this department includes the provincial capital Ushuaia and Staten Island of 534 square kilometres to the East. It was first discovered by a European in 1520 when spotted by Ferdinand Magellan, even after Argentina achieved independence, this territory remained under indigenous control until the nations campaign known as the Conquest of the Desert in the 1870s. After destroying most of the population in the desert part of Patagonia. European immigration followed due to a rush and rapid expansion of sheep farming on large ranches in the area. Tierra del Fuego is the most recent Argentine territory to gain provincial status, the effective extent of the province is the eastern part of the island of Tierra del Fuego, Isla de los Estados and adjacent islands. Although Argentina exercises no authority in those territories, other than in Argentine Antarctic bases, the youngest of the Argentine provinces was first inhabited around 12,000 years ago. When the first Europeans arrived, they encountered a population of about 10,000 indigenous people belonging to four tribes, Yámana, Alakaluf, Selknam, in addition, in the late 19th century, ranchers and settlers committed genocide against the Selknam. The provincial capital city is Ushuaia, from a word meaning bay towards the end. The territory was first seen by Europeans in 1520 during Ferdinand Magellans expedition and he named the area Land of Smokes, as he saw what were probably the fires produced by the local Amerindian peoples for heat. Juan de Alderete in 1555 and later Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa intended to found settlements in the area, the harsh weather and the constant attacks of British pirates, who took Sarmiento de Gamboa prisoner, frustrated their ambitions. Spanish, Dutch, British and French explorers ventured on Tierra del Fuego island, gabriel de Castilla passed through before exploring the Antarctic islands. In the early 1830s, Commander Robert FitzRoy, and Charles Darwin explored this land, in 1828 Argentina established a penal colony at Puerto Luis on the Falkland Islands. Luis Piedrabuena installed a base in San Juan de Salvamento on Isla de los Estados, the British South American Mission Society Patagonia Mission, under its superintendent Waite Stirling, founded Ushuaia as an Anglican mission in southern Tierra del Fuego in 1869. Shortly after, Salesian missionaries founded Río Grande, in the 1880s the Argentine government took a more active interest in Tierra del Fuego. In 1881, the meridian 68°3638 W was defined as the boundary between the Chilean and the Argentine portions of the island, in 1884 the Government of Tierra del Fuego was created, and a subprefecture was established at Ushuaia. The southern part of the Beagle Channel was an issue of conflict between states, which competed for control of three small islands, Picton, Lennox and Nueva. Finally in 1977, these were awarded to Chile by decision of the mediating British Crown, revised by Pope John Paul II, but, it is not the most sparsely populated province of Argentina

9.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, eventually, the Americas came to be known as the West Indies, a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the blanket term Indies and Indians for the indigenous inhabitants, although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time, although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires. Many parts of the Americas are still populated by peoples, some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico. At least a different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are the subject of ongoing research. According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska was a glacial refugium because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska for thousands of years. Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single population, one that developed in isolation. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years, around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets. Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age

10.
Cape Horn
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Cabo de Hornos is a Chilean commune located in the south of Tierra del Fuego archipelago, in Antártica Province, Magallanes Region. The municipality of Cabo de Hornos, located in the town of Puerto Williams and it is named for Cape Horn. According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Cabo de Hornos spans an area of 15,853.7 km2 and has 2,262 inhabitants, of these,1,952 lived in urban areas and 310 in rural areas. The population grew by 24. 7% between the 1992 and 2002 censuses, as a commune, Cabo de Hornos is a third-level administrative division of Chile administered by a municipal council, headed by an alcalde who is directly elected every four years. The 2016-2020 alcalde is Patricio Fernández, the commune is represented in the Senate by Carlos Bianchi Chelech and Carolina Goic as part of the 19th senatorial constituency. Murray Channel Cabo de Hornos commune,2006 Official website of the Municipality of Cabo de Hornos Official website of Puerto Williams Gobierno Regional Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Official website Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve

11.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive

Period impression of the HMS Beagle navigating along Tierra del Fuego, 1833.

A member of the Selknam people, 1904. The Selk'nam, or Ona, who traditionally placed great value on amiability, were the island's most numerous native people until their numbers were reduced by disease and genocide in the 19th and 20th centuries.